leaky rear air outlet?

[snowball1288]

ive recently had several passengers in my 99 civic hatchback complain of wet pants while sitting in the back, so i looked into it and i found a biiig puddle of water and a pile of gravel around my spare tire. judging by the trails of water, I figure when i hit the brakes, it slides forward into the rear seats. it looks like it's coming in from one of the rear air outlets that are right behind the bumper cover near the tail lights. My car was involved in an accident before i owned it and work was done back there. so anyhow, it looked like one of the vents was installed upside down which made the flap on the vent hang open let water in. so i uninstalled the vent and turned it back right-side up, yet i still have a little bit of water coming in through the vents on both sides (it is better though).

I figure that spray from the road is still coming in slowly around the flaps and accumulating. my temporary solution was to stuff some foam in the vents to prevent the spray from coming up yet still let air out. i would think that they should have had foam in them from the start, but of course if they did, my car wouldnt have them because the people who repaired the accident damage installed everything wrong! (they got my rear left lower suspension arm upside down too. grr.)

sorry for the lengthy post... just trying to be clear.
anyhow, does anyone else have problems with water in the trunk? And can anyone verify that the vents origionally had foam or are the flaps on mine just not sealing?

[jclark]

The vents I've seen don't have any foam.

Are you sure that's where the water is coming from?
That's usually not a place to have a problem.
If it is, make sure the plastic housing matches the opening
all around. A little silicone RTV or something like that may be
needed to seal it.
Usually the tail lights are what leaks, so double check there too.
Also, the rear of the trunk lid, under the plastic insert that holds
the liscence plate has some seams for the inset panel.
After rear end collisions, sometimes those seams leak.
They have seam sealer on them from the factory and sometimes
they get opened up. Another place that no one would think about.
Good luck, leaks are a pain.

[snowball1288]

thanks for the help. i took out just about all the rear interior panels and hosed down the car from the outside while watching inside. it looks like there are two problems. 1) my tail lights are leaking (good call!) 2) and the seal between the vent and the body was not tight. so i used silcone sealant to reseal the vent against the body and now thats fine, but my tail light is still leaking. guess i'd better get back to work!